Madhya Pradesh polls: NGOs for Bhopal Gas tragedy launch campaign on NOTA option

Various organisations working for the cause of gas-affected persons in the city today said they have launched a campaign to educate victims of the world's worst industrial disaster about using "NOTA" option in the upcoming elections as successive Congress and BJP governments at state and Centre have done "injustice" to them.

The five organisations, working among the survivors of the Union Carbide disaster, launched their campaign to educate the gas-affected voters in the city about the NOTA option of rejecting all candidates in the forthcoming elections, Bhopal Group for Information and Action's Rachna Dhingra told reporters.

"BJP and Congress have equally denied the gas victims their legal rights to adequate compensation and both have provided support to the offending multinationals – Union Carbide and Dow Chemical," alleged Rashida Bee, president of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, on the occasion.

President of Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pension Bhogi Sangharsh Morcha, Balkrishna Namdeo said both the BJP and the Congress had mainly been in power at the state and Centre in the last nearly three decades.

Dhingra said that in the light of documentary evidence of harm caused to the interests of the gas-affected people by both the political parties, the NOTA option was best suited for the voters.

"We will distribute pamphlets, address public meetings and present the charges against the governments under both the parties and tell our people about the NOTA option" Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha President Nawab Khan said.

Safreen Khan of Children Against Dow Carbide said that many second generation survivors are angry at the treatment meted out to their families by governments run by both the parties.

"It is indeed sad and telling that our first step in to democracy is the NOTA button," she added.